Scandia gravel pit plan rejected by planning group, now moves to council

Questions about the city's comprehensive plan, possible groundwater contamination, traffic, noise and other issues have led the Scandia Planning Commission to recommend that the city council refuse a request to reopen a sand and gravel pit near the St. Croix River.

Tiller, based in Maple Grove, is seeking permission to extract sand and gravel from 64 acres of the 114-acre site, which is owned by Jim Zavoral. The property is just east of where Minnesota highways 95 and 97 intersect and hasn't been mined since the 1980s.

Critics say the operation could harm groundwater and the St. Croix National Scenic Riverway, increase noise and traffic, reduce property values, and disrupt scenery.

Conflicting testimony from experts about those issues concerned the planning commission, said chairwoman Christine Maefsky.

But one of the major issues, according to Maefsky, was the city's comprehensive plan.

Mining was an allowed conditional use under the city's 2020 plan, which was in effect when Tiller applied for a permit in November 2008.

But mining would not be allowed at that site under the 2030 plan, which was adopted in March 2009.

In April 2009, city officials agreed that the project would be reviewed under the old plan.

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"Originally, what we had been told was that there was no option other than judging it by the 2020 comp plan, but, in fact, there are court cases" that would allow the current comprehensive plan to be applied, Maefsky said. "It's not a clear-cut case."

Maefsky has been on the planning commission since 2007 and served on the city's 2030 comprehensive plan committee. She said she and other committee members put in "hundreds of hours on the plan, to say nothing of the input from the whole community in terms of the surveys that were done and comments that were received and public hearings that were attended."

"We're four years into that plan, and to be saying that it is not the valid plan to judge a major issue like this by, I just can't imagine," she said. "In my mind, it's really important that we look at it through the lens of the current comprehensive plan."

But Mike Caron, Tiller's director of land-use affairs, said his company moved forward in good faith after city officials said they would be reviewing the mining proposal under the old comprehensive plan.

"Once they adopted the 2030 comp plan, the city had the option to tell us, 'We are now going to look at this project under the 2030 comp plan,' and we would have made decisions based on that," Caron said.

Caron said Scandia was still a township when Tiller first approached officials about the Zavoral site in November 2006.

"At that time, the township had just been authorized to incorporate as a city, and we couldn't move forward with an application until they had their mining ordinance in place," Caron said. "If we had gotten permission to move forward then, the project would be completed by now."

"We appreciate the city's need to look at all of the issues that surround this project," he said. "We think they've had the opportunity to fully review things, and we're looking forward to a final decision."

City staff has recommended approval of the permit -- with more than 100 conditions, said Kristina Handt, Scandia city administrator.

The conflicting planning commission and staff recommendations will be reviewed at the Scandia City Council meeting Jan. 15. The council is expected to vote Feb. 19.

"Folks will have an indication at the Jan. 15 meeting which way the council will go," Handt said.

If no action is taken by Feb. 20, the application will be approved without conditions, Handt said. State law says the council must act within 120 days after an application is deemed complete; that date was Oct. 23, she said.